Vtk

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In [1]:
import panel as pn
pn.extension('vtk')

The VTK pane renders VTK objects and vtk.js files inside a panel, making it possible to interact with complex geometries in 3D.

Parameters:

For layout and styling related parameters see the customization user guide.

  • axes (dict): A dictionary with the parameters of the axes to construct in the 3d view. Must contain at least xticker, yticker and zticker.

    • [x|y|z]ticker is a dictionary which contains:

      • ticks (array of numbers) - required. Positions in the scene coordinates of the coresponding axe ticks
      • labels (array of strings) - optional. Label displayed respectively to the ticks positions.

        If labels are not defined they are infered from the ticks array.

    • digits: number of decimal digits when ticks are converted to labels.
    • fontsize: size in pts of the ticks labels.
    • show_grid: boolean. If true (default) the axes grid is visible.
    • grid_opacity: float between 0-1. Defines the grid opacity.
    • axes_opacity: float between 0-1. Defines the axes lines opacity.
  • camera (dict): A dictionary reflecting the current state of the VTK camera
  • enable_keybindings (bool): A boolean to activate/deactivate keybindings. Bound keys are:

    • s: set representation of all actors to surface
    • w: set representation of all actors to wireframe
    • v: set representation of all actors to vertex
    • r: center the actors and move the camera so that all actors are visible

    The mouse must be over the pane to work
    Warning: These keybindings may not work as expected in a notebook context, if they interact with already bound keys

  • orientation_widget (bool): A boolean to activate/deactivate the orientation widget in the 3D pane. This widget is clickable and allows to rotate the scene in one of the orthographic projections.
  • object (str or object): Can be a string pointing to a local or remote file with a .vtkjs extension, or a vtkRenderWindow object
  • serialize_on_instantiation (bool): It defines when the serialization of the 3D scene occurs. If set to True (default) the scene object is serialized when the panel is created else when the panel is displayed to the screen. This parameter is constant, once set it can't be modified

The simplest way to construct a VTK pane is to give it a vtk.js file which it will serialize and embed in the plot. The VTK pane also supports the regular sizing options provided by Bokeh, including responsive sizing modes:

In [2]:
vtk_pane = pn.pane.VTK('https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Kitware/vtk-js/master/Data/StanfordDragon.vtkjs',
                     sizing_mode='stretch_width', height=400, enable_keybindings=True, orientation_widget=True,
                     serialize_on_instantiation=True)
vtk_pane
Out[2]:

The VTK pane can also be updated like all other pane objects by replacing the object:

In [3]:
vtk_pane.object = "https://github.com/Kitware/vtk-js-datasets/raw/master/data/vtkjs/TBarAssembly.vtkjs"

Controls

The VTK pane exposes a number of options which can be changed from both Python and Javascript. Try out the effect of these parameters interactively:

In [4]:
pn.Row(vtk_pane.controls(jslink=True), vtk_pane)
Out[4]:

Camera control

Once a VTK pane has been displayed it will automatically sync the camera state with the Pane object. We can read the camera state on the corresponding parameter:

> vtk_pane.camera

{'position': [-21.490090356222225, 14.44963146483641, 26.581314468858984],
 'focalPoint': [0, 4.969950199127197, 0],
 'viewUp': [0.17670012087160802, 0.9635684210080306, -0.20078088883170594],
 'directionOfProjection': [0.605834463228546,
  -0.2672449261957517,
  -0.749362897791989],
 'parallelProjection': False,
 'useHorizontalViewAngle': False,
 'viewAngle': 30,
 'parallelScale': 9.180799381276024,
 'clippingRange': [26.442079567041056, 44.714416678555395],
 'thickness': 1000,
 'windowCenter': [0, 0],
 'useOffAxisProjection': False,
 'screenBottomLeft': [-0.5, -0.5, -0.5],
 'screenBottomRight': [0.5, -0.5, -0.5],
 'screenTopRight': [0.5, 0.5, -0.5],
 'freezeFocalPoint': False,
 'useScissor': False,
 'projectionMatrix': None,
 'viewMatrix': None,
 'physicalTranslation': [0, -4.969950199127197, 0],
 'physicalScale': 9.180799381276024,
 'physicalViewUp': [0, 1, 0],
 'physicalViewNorth': [0, 0, -1],
 'mtime': 2237,
 'distance': 35.47188491341284}

This technique also makes it possible to link the camera of two or more VTK panes together:

In [5]:
dragon1 = pn.pane.VTK('https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Kitware/vtk-js/master/Data/StanfordDragon.vtkjs',
                      height=400, sizing_mode='stretch_width')
dragon2 = pn.pane.VTK('https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Kitware/vtk-js/master/Data/StanfordDragon.vtkjs',
                      height=400, sizing_mode='stretch_width')

dragon1.jslink(dragon2, camera='camera', bidirectional=True)

pn.Row(dragon1, dragon2)
Out[5]:

and to modify the camera state in Python and trigger an update:

In [6]:
if dragon1.camera:
    dragon1.camera['viewAngle'] = 50
    dragon1.param.trigger('camera')

Rendering VTK objects

In addition to support for plotting vtkjs files the VTK pane can also render objects defined using the vtk Python library.

There are slight differences with classical code generally used. As rendering of the objects and interactions with the view are handle by the VTK panel, we don't need to make a call to the Render method of the vtkRenderWindow (which would pop up the classical VTK window) or to specify a vtkRenderWindowInteractor.

In [7]:
import vtk
from vtk.util.colors import tomato

# This creates a polygonal cylinder model with eight circumferential
# facets.
cylinder = vtk.vtkCylinderSource()
cylinder.SetResolution(8)

# The mapper is responsible for pushing the geometry into the graphics
# library. It may also do color mapping, if scalars or other
# attributes are defined.
cylinderMapper = vtk.vtkPolyDataMapper()
cylinderMapper.SetInputConnection(cylinder.GetOutputPort())

# The actor is a grouping mechanism: besides the geometry (mapper), it
# also has a property, transformation matrix, and/or texture map.
# Here we set its color and rotate it -22.5 degrees.
cylinderActor = vtk.vtkActor()
cylinderActor.SetMapper(cylinderMapper)
cylinderActor.GetProperty().SetColor(tomato)
# We must set ScalarVisibilty to 0 to use tomato Color
cylinderMapper.SetScalarVisibility(0)
cylinderActor.RotateX(30.0)
cylinderActor.RotateY(-45.0)

# Create the graphics structure. The renderer renders into the render
# window.
ren = vtk.vtkRenderer()
renWin = vtk.vtkRenderWindow()
renWin.AddRenderer(ren)

# Add the actors to the renderer, set the background and size
ren.AddActor(cylinderActor)
ren.SetBackground(0.1, 0.2, 0.4)

geom_pane = pn.pane.VTK(renWin, width=500, height=500)

geom_pane
Out[7]:

We can also add additional actors to the plot and then trigger an update:

In [8]:
sphere = vtk.vtkSphereSource()

sphereMapper = vtk.vtkPolyDataMapper()
sphereMapper.SetInputConnection(sphere.GetOutputPort())

sphereActor = vtk.vtkActor()
sphereActor.SetMapper(sphereMapper)
sphereActor.GetProperty().SetColor(tomato)
sphereMapper.SetScalarVisibility(0)
sphereActor.RotateX(30.0)
sphereActor.RotateY(-45.0)
sphereActor.SetPosition(0.5, 0.5, 0.5)

ren.AddActor(sphereActor)

geom_pane.param.trigger('object')

Construction of ColorBars for VTK objects

When working with VTK objects, a scalar array can be associated with vertices or cells of an actor mesh. With the help of a look-up table, scalar values are associated with colors at rendering time.

Colorbars are used to represent the association between scalars and colors. The VTK pane allows constructing colorbars for the vtk actors in the scene using the construct_colorbars method. This method will return a bokeh plot containing colorbars for each actor that uses a scalar array and a lookup table.

If no colorbar is found in the scene the method return None.

We present an example of the use of construct_colorbars. Here we use pyvista module which simplifies the construction of VTK scenes

In [9]:
import pyvista as pv
import numpy as np
def make_points():
    """Helper to make XYZ points"""
    theta = np.linspace(-4 * np.pi, 4 * np.pi, 100)
    z = np.linspace(-2, 2, 100)
    r = z**2 + 1
    x = r * np.sin(theta)
    y = r * np.cos(theta)
    return np.column_stack((x, y, z))

def lines_from_points(points):
    """Given an array of points, make a line set"""
    poly = pv.PolyData()
    poly.points = points
    cells = np.full((len(points)-1, 3), 2, dtype=np.int)
    cells[:, 1] = np.arange(0, len(points)-1, dtype=np.int)
    cells[:, 2] = np.arange(1, len(points), dtype=np.int)
    poly.lines = cells
    return poly

points = make_points()
line = lines_from_points(points)
line["scalars"] = np.arange(line.n_points) # By default pyvista use viridis colormap
tube = line.tube(radius=0.1) #=> the object we will represent in the scene


#pyvista plotter => it constructs a vtkRenderWindow under the attribute ren_win
pl = pv.Plotter(notebook=True)
pl.camera_position =  [(4.440892098500626e-16, -21.75168228149414, 4.258553981781006),
                       (4.440892098500626e-16, 0.8581731039809382, 0),
                       (0, 0.1850949078798294, 0.982720673084259)]

pl.add_mesh(tube, smooth_shading=True)
pan = pn.panel(pl.ren_win, sizing_mode='stretch_width', orientation_widget=True)
pn.Row(pn.Column(pan, pan.construct_colorbars()), pn.pane.Str(type(pl.ren_win), width=500))
Out[9]:

Adding axes to the VTK scene

Using the axes parameter, it is possible to add an axes into the 3d view.

In [10]:
axes = dict(
    origin = [-5, 5, -2],
    xticker = {'ticks': np.linspace(-5,5,5)},
    yticker = {'ticks': np.linspace(-5,5,5)},
    zticker = {'ticks': np.linspace(-2,2,5), 'labels': [''] + [str(int(item)) for item in np.linspace(-2,2,5)[1:]]},
    fontsize = 12,
    digits = 1,
    grid_opacity = 0.5,
    show_grid=True
)
pan.axes = axes

Download this notebook from GitHub (right-click to download).